Typography Education as a Tool to Potentiate Art Nouveau Museums

Abstract

This article results from a masterclass given to European Réseau Art Nouveau Network technicians. Its main objectives were to raise awareness of the potential of Art Nouveau museum collections of the different cities aggregated to the Art Nouveau network, in contemporary typographic development and the implementation of museographic practices involving different audiences for this thematic. Art Nouveau acquired very different typographic expressions in each of the regions where it appeared. Austria's style differs from Scotland's, and Belgium's differs from Catalonia's. Starting from a brief historical context, supported by the observation of several specimens (two-dimensional and three-dimensional) from the 1880s to the 1920s, it was intended to foster interest and critical discussion on the morphological differences between the design of the letters (micro-typography) and its use in different contexts (macro-typography). By presenting some Art Nouveau typographic case studies (original fonts, revivalist types, or new creations inspired by Art Nouveau), the theme of design and creation of typographic fonts was approached, anticipating possibilities for future development in this area of activity. From this masterclass emerged a set of potential actions that not only promote the specific area of Typography (such as the creation of fonts from the graphic collection of these museums) but also integrate it as a museological practice, namely through actions of investigation of the local Art Nouveau typographic heritage and its use in the design of specific activities of museums and their respective educational services.